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Whey hey lads, we’re all going to heaven!!!!

For the one or two obsessive, possibly housebound, loners who actually care enough to check here on a Friday night…. I’M ALIVE!!!!!! The move is done, I’m living back in the big city again and fully refreshed after a week off the show…

Move great (thanks to the lovely lot at Careline – tell Kevin that Rick sent you!!) and the unpacking fairly smooth too. The new place is great – quirky, built in the 30s (we have a pantry!!), in a nice area with a lovely school for my little boy and a huge back garden (no, space wasn’t at such a premium in those days!)

Then came Bank Holiday Monday….

They speak of it in hushed tones already but I, gentle reader, I was there….

Beck.

Last Monday at the Olympia I ventured out back into the real world with the man of legendary stamina – 2FM’s own Dan Hegarty (I say this as it was his fourth night out at gigs that particular weekend…) I’ve been around since my still prized cd single purchase of “Loser” (and it’s highly underrated b side “MTV Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack”) but I’d never seen him before in the flesh.

Yes, he was just as I expected him to be – the bastard lovechild of Bob Dylan, Prince and The Beastie Boys and the moment of legend (when the band used a fully laden dinner table they’d just been eating from on stage to support him on an acoustic number) will be spoken about in “nah, you can’t be serious!” tones for many months to come… It was real, we were there, I had a few pints…

The loading up of my mp3 player continues apace… Only 400 tracks or so in so far but it has only been a couple of days (am ripping in the entire Beautiful South back catalogue as I type!) and nothing but good experiences so far…

It’s weird to finally be able to give my own soundtrack to daily life. Random play throws up the weirdest combinations – be it Jay-Z’s 99 Problems on the way back to the Untitled office, bagel in hand in town the other day or The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again walking to the bus to the Beck gig the other night or (and I couldn’t make this one up) Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic while stuck in traffic on St Stephen’s Green….

It also gives you the most wonderful combinations. What radio station is ever going to play back to back (as my player did yesterday) The Futureheads, Count Basie, Eminem, The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, Led Zeppelin and The Statler Bros? None I know of!!! (Am I talking myself out of a job here? Wouldn’t be the first time…)

I’m only back in the door this coming Monday and we’re off again – the show is coming to you from Glasgow on Wednesday morning (we’re off to see REM there the night before) and half from Manchester on Thursday (Ruth seeing U2 there on Wed night – busy bee that she is). Feck knows what else is happening – I’m sure someone will tell me at some point…

7 days agoby therickosheaIt's the silly season gift that keeps on giving. There's me in @nypost ... I even wrote the headline for them: http://nypost.com/2017/08/09/irish-media-blast-espn-writer-for-lazy-stereotyping-bulls-t/

1 week agoby therickosheaMost. Confusing. Headline. Ever. It refers to that people I'm interviewing in my new podcast series :-)